A drive to Florida from Cape Cod can be pricey. Here are some of the costs seasonal residents keep in mind when they choose to use auto transports for their vehicles.

Miles from Cape Cod...

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By the numbers

A drive to Florida from Cape Cod can be pricey. Here are some of the costs seasonal residents keep in mind when they choose to use auto transports for their vehicles.

Miles from Cape Cod to Florida: 1,500 (give or take a few hundred)

Length of trip: 2 to 3 days

Miles per gallon of gas for a 2013 Honda Civic (America's most popular sedan in October): 32

Estimated cost of gas for one-way trip for Civic: $188

Miles per gallon of gas for a 2013 Ford F-150 pickup truck (America's most popular truck/SUV in October): 17

Estimated cost of gas for trip for F-150: $340

Tolls on trip: $35-$50

Basic lodging for two nights: about $200

Sources: cars.com, AAA fuel calculator, Times reader comments

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Every winter, thousands of snowbirds make the trip from Cape Cod to warmer climes.

But while they spread their wings (or, OK, buy plane tickets) for the trip down south, many other Cape residents are stepping in to bring their wheels to second homes across Florida.

"It's cheaper and easier physically," one Hyannis resident who also owns a home in Florida said. "No ifs, ands or buts."

In many Cape towns, populations vary widely with the seasons.

In Sandwich, which has the lowest variation in population by season, 13.6 percent of the population is considered seasonal.

The difference is even higher in some Mid-Cape towns and others on the Lower Cape: More than half of the total populations in Dennis, Chatham, Eastham, Provincetown, Truro and Wellfleet are seasonal, according to data compiled by the Cape Cod Commission.

And a 2005 study from the University of Florida — the most recent numbers available — estimated that there were more than 700,000 snowbirds in Florida in the winter.

The number of people over the age of 55 with a residence in Florida and somewhere else dropped to only 40,000 in the late summer, the study found.

And with those people comes, of course, their stuff — including hundreds of vehicles that are transported from Cape Cod homes to Florida abodes.

Paul Lecomte of Dennisport has driven two cars down to Florida this season, including one whose owner took the trip with him in the passenger seat.

For snowbirds heading to Florida, having a person drive the car — instead of having the car put onto a transport truck with dozens of others — is an economical choice.

"I can do it for practically nothing," Lecompte said.

He charges "a couple of hundred" dollars for the trip to the car owner's home, plus owners pay for gas, expenses and his plane ticket home, Lecompte said.

"Instead of putting it on a truck, where it could cost a thousand or more, it costs them half that. That's the point of it "» plus I enjoy a few days down to Florida," he said.

John Cotellessa, who owns the Original Gourmet Brunch restaurant on Main Street in Hyannis, started offering his driving services as a side job this year and has taken two trips to southwest Florida so far.

He thinks it's his quick turnaround — about two days, with 12 to 14 hours of driving during each — that customers like.

"With bigger companies, it can take 10 days, 15 days," Cotellessa said. There can also be added expenses for filling a vehicle with personal belongings, which he said he doesn't charge for.

So far he has charged between $500 and $550, plus gas and a plane ticket home, to drop owners' vehicles at their doors in Florida.

"My food and hotel is on me," he said.

In contrast, Bernie Enright, who owns Big Dog Auto Transport in Sandwich, charges $900 to transport most cars "door to door" from the Cape to Florida, though larger SUVs and vehicles cost more, he said.

Enright usually ships around 100 vehicles a year using trucks he contracts with, he said.

But many Cape Codders find the added cost is worth it to have a Cape-based proprietor load their vehicles onto 18-wheeler transportation trucks for the trip south.

Travelers who take their own cars have to consider the expense of gas, food, tolls and lodging while on the road, plus "wear and tear on the individual," Enright said.

"It's a no brainer," a West Harwich snowbird, who makes the trip to the Fort Lauderdale area with his wife each year and uses an auto transport service, said.

One Yarmouthport couple that travels to Sarasota every year used to make the drive themselves, before medical issues — and the uncomfortable state a couple of days of driving can put anyone in — led them to start using a transportation service.

Over the years, the trip has gotten more difficult, and "we've seen a lot of accidents," the man said.

And fickle weather also means no worrying about getting snowed in.

"One year we experienced winter conditions all the way until Hilton Head, S.C.," the West Harwich man said.